Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 32:127 (Jul 1875)
Article: Misquotation Of Scripture
Author: A. C. Thompson

BSac 32:127 (July 1875) p. 452

Misquotation Of Scripture

Rev. A. C. Thompson

When Martin Luther had finished his translation of the Bible, he begged, in his preface, that all people would let it remain as it was. They might set about making another as soon as they pleased; but he protested against alterations of his. “Let this continue mine,” says the Reformer, “for now-a-days there is no end of mending and bettering.” He had the same literary right in that labor which he had in his other translated productions and in his original writings. Whatever the merits of the translation, he was entitled to have its integrity maintained against careless, as well as intentional, modifications. The same is true, of course, in regard to all similar products of the pen. Expurgated editions of the classics, and translations with offensive passages omitted may be expedient — the fact being avowed; but when professed citations are made from any book, sacred or secular, there is a moral obligation that they should be given with exactness. If reasonable pains are not taken to verify the language, a dereliction of duty is justly chargeable. No other volume in Protestant lands is so widely diffused, so easy of access, so much read, and so often quoted as the Bible. In regard to no other, then, is inaccuracy of quotation less excusable, while no other is more generally abused.

The inaccuracies now to be considered are, for the most

BSac 32:127 (July 1875) p. 453

part, such as result from carelessness or ignorance, not such as are due to variations between different editions of our Bible, nor yet such as are designed. The latter may be largely allowable, and, when made for a specific and obvious purpose, are not likely to mislead those who are tolerably familiar with scripture. The same holds in secular literature. It was, for instance, a happy adaptation of the old painter’s maxim, “Nulla dies sine linea,” when Luther, explaining the secret of his effecting so arduous a work as the translation of the Bible amidst manifold other labors, said, “Nulla dies sine versu.” Nor have we in hand at present mere individual instances of blundering. The late Governor Wise, of Virginia, in a letter to Hon. David Hubbard, said: “The Reubens have tried to sell me into Egypt for my dreaming.” Unfortunately for the governor, Reuben was the only one in the company of treacherous brethren who did not wish to sell Joseph into Egypt. An eminent lawyer of Maine, in an argument at a session of the Supreme Court in Saco, wishing to emphasize the fact that deeds, not words, show a person’s animus in any given transaction, cited to the jury the case of the prodigal, whose father divided his property between his two sons, and said: “‘Go, work to-day in my vineyard.’ One of them sai...